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By now all gun owners have heard about the horrible tragedy of a 9 year old losing control of a fully automatic UZI and accidentally shooting her instructor in the head.

My opinion is that this accident should never have happened. No nine year old child should be allowed to fire a fully automatic weapon. Ever. To allow a small child to fire such a weapon is negligent. The issue is recoil.

With a shot, the gun barrel rises. With a single shot nonautoloader, the rising barrel isn’t an issue. With a fully automatic, a second shot is fired automatically driving the barrel higher. A third shot, more recoil and more upward movement to contend with. It’s basic physics and common sense.

There are many adults who can’t control a fully automatic 9mm or 5.56. Even the strongest guys can’t use a 7.62 mm NATO in full auto. This is why 3 shot bursts are taught to soldiers and police.

A few “shooters” don’t know this, but shooting isn’t just “fun” blasting off rounds. It’s about controlled fire. It’s about bullet placement. If you can’t control your shots, you’re not a shooter, just a wanna be.

Giving a small child a chance to blast off shots with a powerful SMG at some half-assed gun amusement park isn’t about responsible teaching of respect for firearms. It’s about entertainment. It’s about making a buck.

Here’s now to properly teach children about guns. Focus on safety. Get them a gun that fits them. Have responsible adult supervision. A Daisy Red Ryder is a good BB gun to start with.

A few instructors say they don’t have a problem with very young children firing a powerful weapon as long as an instructor holds the weapon. That’s wrong. If a child can’t hold a weapon on their own, it’s too damn big for them. If an adult must operate any of the controls, like the selector switch to go to full auto, the child doesn’t have the experience to use that gun.

When a gun is too large for a child, the child isn’t going to learn to shoot. They’ll just develop bad habits as they accommodate the oversized gun.

Once a child knows how to use the sights and can shoot with some degree of skill, the next weapon to introduce them to is a 22 LR. You can load it with CB caps. A better air rifle is another choice.

The best weapon is a single shot. This forces the child to think about each shot. With a semi-auto, Ruger 10/22 or other, many youngsters just want to pull the trigger. They’ll seldom become really good shots. Those taught with a single shot don’t get in the bad habit of raising the gun and just pulling the trigger.

The gun stock should be cut down to match the smaller size of the child. When the child has experience with a 22 LR, then more powerful weapons can be gradually introduced. If you’re using a SMG or even a semi auto for the first time, load two or thee shots to get a feel for what it’s like to have the barrel rise on you. An appropriate age for trying a full auto, in my opinion, maybe 16 years old or older.

If a gun starts rising, it’s natural to grip it tighter to get control. Learn to operate your trigger finder independently of your grip. Before the gun gets out of control, you must take your finger off the trigger while you grip it tightly.

If I were at a gun range allowing small children to use fully automatic military/police weapons, I’d leave and never return. Accidents like this harm the shooting community. When something like this happens, many parents who thought about introducing their children to firearms will adopt other sports. Many Americans who were on the fence about gun control issues will go over to the anti-gunners.

I read an editorial about the Missouri riots.
“Another tragic and unjust killing of a young black man shows that, for all the progress on civil rights, America’s racial wounds are still open”

All I can say is wow. Just wow. From witness accounts this guy attacked a police officer and went for his gun. Shooting somebody going for your gun isn’t “unjust.”

The problem is this guy didn’t feel the rules applied to him. He was a huge dude at 6 feet 4 inches and some 300 pounds. He walked into a store and stole from it and threatened a clerk who “dared” to confront him. He walked down a road obstructing traffic. When asked to move, he attacked the police officer. If he had literally followed the rules of the road and common courtesy he’d be alive today. Simple.

Here’s another case of feeling the rules don’t apply.
This guy was skateboarding in a park where it was forbidden. A park ranger asked him and his friends to stop skating. Did he apologize and leave? Nope. He beat the officer up. In the day, as youngsters we wouldn’t talk back to an officer, let alone physically assault him.

There’s much talk about police not respecting the rights of citizens and not having adequate sensitivity. What isn’t talked about is respecting authorities. Many of these guys who wind up shot or in prision bring it down on themselves.
If stopped by a police officer, understand their job is stressful and risky. If their requests are at all reasonable, “stand over their sir,” “take your hands out of your pockets,” just do what they ask. Be respectful of their legitimate authority. People who respect laws are called citizens. People who don’t feel the rules apply to them: Criminals.

It’s an excellent piece about how we’re effected by serious hunger. Most of us have no idea how we’ll really feel when hungry or how it distracts the mind. Most Americans have no clue what it’s like not to have food and be hungry. If food ever weren’t available, chaos would rein. Some Americans couldn’t function. Others would turn to violence to get grub. Others would go on and silently suffer.

I understand the desire to know what something feels like and to test oneself. We’re preppers though. Not military special forces. We don’t need to be starved, sleep deprived, and generally abused to find out what we’re made of. Prepping should be about doing everything we can to avoid those situations. Not hardening ourselves physically and mentally for the worst situations. I’ll write more about this idea later.
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Over at TNGun, David Nash is reviewing books about explosives. Unless we’re invaded we’ll never need that knowledge. All we can achieve is getting put on watch lists by various government agencies. Jesus, I’m even afraid to link to the post. I don’t like being on lists. I don’t even like being on Christmas lists. Who knows where that information eventually goes! Have I been naughty or nice, none of your damn business.

I agree we have a Constitutional right to the information. Here’s the rub: If a totalitarian government ever did come to power, former rights go right out the window. What would remain would be the digital record of our knowledge. A ruthless government could take the preemptive step of going after all the people they knew had the capability, interest, or mindset of fighting them.

When the Nazis seized power in Germany, there were groups that fought them. One group: The Red Orchestra, which believed in communism. When Russia captured part of Germany after the war, these people felt they’d be in good standing. They had been ideologically devoted to the concept of communism. They were loyal.

What did the communist invaders do? Promptly rounded up those people and arrested them. It made sense: If they were brave enough to fight the Nazis they’d have the willingness to fight the communists too, once they saw through the ideological bullshit and realized they were going to be under the thumb of another group.

Never trust governments, don’t get suckered in by any ideology, and stay off lists.

I’m a big fan of technology when it’s useful. What I don’t like is technology used to make things more complex when I don’t see a need for the complexity. Take modern cars.

1. Older cars (1990s) had far less computer code. New cars have millions of lines of computer code and the computer systems interact with all sorts of operations. An example would be computer controlled power windows.

Why do they do this? I think they want sensors to stop closing the window if a kid gets his head caught. I’d prefer a hand-cranked lever to open the window to computer control. If my window doesn’t work, I don’t want to reprogram a computer or take the car in for service. I don’t want to purchase expensive electronics to service this crap.

In the old hand-cranked window days, a kid had to be pretty dumb to close his head in a car window or have a mean brother. As a society we survived power windows. Technology can’t replace common sense. If we need a computer to protect us from opening a car window by ourselves, society is doomed.

Computer controlled acceleration is another thing I see no use for. Drive by wire, die in a fire.

2. New cars have “modules.” If you’ve driven a lot you’ve had a flasher or blinker go out on you. That’s the thing that blinks your turn signals. You can purchase them for a few bucks and easily replace them yourself…unless… you have a newer car which integrates the flasher into a control module.

Flasher = $2. Module = A lot more $.

Car makers do this so you need to go to them to get replacement parts. The problem is that the parts are far more expensive than aftermarket parts. If you drive your car for many years (15+), you’ll find there aren’t new dealer parts for it. Yes, you can purchase wheel cylinders and the like, but forget specialized control modules. Nobody makes them.

Car makers don’t care about serviceability of older cars. They want you to buy new. As a society we must tolerate this BS because people just aren’t do-it-yourselfers anymore. They don’t know how to fix things. They don’t realize they’re being jacked for added repair costs.

3. Extra comforts aren’t worth the added mechanical problems. Heated seats bug me. I live in a cold state. Waking up in a cold morning and sitting on a cold car seat wakes you up. It’s part of the natural order of things. If you’re not ready to be woken up by your cold car seat, you should have stayed in bed.

How long will cars made in 2014 continue to function and what will be the repair costs for those of us who drive cars into the ground? We just don’t know. Older cars could keep going until they rusted out or the engine was totally shot. You could purchase blinkers. You could fix a power window unit that failed.

If you’re a hard core do-it-yourself auto mechanic and you purchase a newer car, I recommend you visit junk yards and pick up a few of the key modules for your new car. Those parts won’t be available in the future at reasonable rates. If you sell your car you likely can sell the modules on ebay and get your money back.

This rioting started when a man, Michael Brown, was shot by a police officer. Here’s my take on all this:

1. This “kid” is a huge trouble maker and a aggressive criminal as seen in a surveillance video. This isn’t some innocent law-abiding “kid.”
2. Police didn’t enforce the law against looters. They didn’t protect stores because they didn’t want to “inflame” the situation. Be prepared to defend yourself if situations get really bad.
3. The police officer who did his job is being harassed. This is a risk for anybody in law enforcement or anybody who fights crime.
4. City will likely pay a ton of money to the family of this criminal just to make the situation go away.
5. Even if he put his “hands up” once aggression has started and you’re defending yourself many of us have been taught to keep shooting until the attacker goes down. This is something people not trained in combat don’t understand.
6. If I was the shop owner in the above video, I’d have kicked the big bully in the nats when he pushed me. A good front kick is a nice thing to have in your skill set. Kudos to the shop owner for standing up to such a bigger robber. That took guts. It’s not what were told to do from a safety standpoint. Still respect.
7. DAMN. I just sold my last “assault rifle.” Preppers should own a fighting rifle. Against an aggressive crowd, I’d much rather have an autoloading rifle than a shotgun.

8. Choose where you live carefully. It’s best not to live near stores that could become the targets of looting.

If you think about the past it’s interesting to speculate how many times you came unknowingly close to disaster. You weren’t aware of the danger but could have been done in.

According to this story a solar superstorm just missed the earth’s orbit by weeks. “If we had been in its path, NASA says it would have had a ‘catastrophic effect,’ blowing out electrical systems, GPS, radio systems and other technology worldwide, plunging billions of people into a blackout that could take years to repair.”

The story says there is a 12% chance of a major solar storm hitting the earth in the next ten years.

To prepare for a solar storm make the same preparations you would for any other disaster: Store food, water. Gain defensive capabilites. That will see you through most any disaster. I always thought the chances of a solar storm were overblown. I could have been wrong.

It doesn’t take a solar storm to dry up supplies. A water issue in Toledo, Ohio had residents scrambling to purchase drinking water.

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Here’s a question for preppers: Do you really need a defensive rifle? (assault rifle, battle rifle). Under most situations, no. But, in a riot, a semi auto magazine fed rifle designed for sustained fire could prove mighty useful.

2. David Nash’s website and youtube blogs. David Nash is the prepper’s prepper. He has a vast range of experience with so many topics. From teaching pistol shooting to raising bees to pretty much every other topic under the sun that a prepper would need to know. All preppers can benefit from his book “52 prepper projects.” If you’re looking for solid information based on hands-on experience, this is the place to go.

3. Demcad. My personal favorite youtube prepper. Good information. Great commentary. I love the way he can laugh off society’s silliness.

4. Thoughtfully Prepping. I only discovered this blog fairly recently. It has great commentary and solid information. It’s one of those blogs that deserves far more attention than it gets.

5. TraceMyPreps.com. Another one of the gem blogs hidden in the vastness of the Internet. Prepper turned homesteader.